The economically efficient operation of a technical system essentially requires a high level of reliability, availability and maintainability of the technical system. Therefore, when designing new technical systems, it is already necessary when planning the system to perform computer-aided simulation of various configurations of said system, and to identify corresponding operating parameters depending on the reliability of the technical system. The prior art discloses approaches in which the expected value of the availability of a technical system is calculated with the aid of computers. Since the expected value is an average value, this approach does not consider in an appropriate manner the dynamic failure response of the technical system in relation to a corresponding operating period of the technical system.